We've been proud to run on British politics' first crowd sourced manifesto.

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A reader writes: "The UK Pirate Party is launching their 2015 crowdsourced policy platform for their manifesto leading to the 2015 general election."

We've been proud to run on British politics' first crowd sourced manifesto. And of course it's time to update and upgrade. This process will run until the 21st of March online and offline and will allow the party to make sure our positions are up to date, and up to scratch for the General Election. To get it right, we need your help:

You can tell us about your ideas, and discuss it publicly on community.pirateparty.org.uk or join the discussion on reddit.

So jump in and share what you want to see happen. It doesn't need to read like a government document, it just needs to be clear what you want to see happen.

The last time we did this thousands of people (members of the party and otherwise) took us from a single-issue party into one with a broad, sensible manifesto, covering a whole range of areas - from the NHS to Education, from Justice to Civil Liberties, from Social Policy to the EU and many areas inbetween

http://boingboing.net/2015/03/02/help-the-uk-pirate-party-write.html/feed0Spontaneous jam: USMC & HS marching band, Mardi Grashttp://boingboing.net/2015/03/01/9spontaneous-jam-usmc-hs-ma.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/03/01/9spontaneous-jam-usmc-hs-ma.html#commentsSun, 01 Mar 2015 14:00:41 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=368631
Matt sends, "video I caught of a spontaneous jam session that happened in front of me at Mardi Gras 2015: A USMC band and a bunch of high school band members met in the streets and suddenly launched into 'St. James Infirmary.'"
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Matt sends, "video I caught of a spontaneous jam session that happened in front of me at Mardi Gras 2015: A USMC band and a bunch of high school band members met in the streets and suddenly launched into 'St. James Infirmary.'"
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http://boingboing.net/2015/03/01/9spontaneous-jam-usmc-hs-ma.html/feed0Mass surveillance hip-hop from the director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committeehttp://boingboing.net/2015/02/27/mass-surveillance-hip-hop-from.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/02/27/mass-surveillance-hip-hop-from.html#commentsFri, 27 Feb 2015 17:00:39 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=368316
Shahid Buttar -- the rapper who created the amazing NSA vs USA track/video -- is also a constitutional lawyer who serves as executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.]]>

Shahid Buttar -- the rapper who created the amazing NSA vs USA track/video -- is also a constitutional lawyer who serves as executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.

Yesterday, Buttar was arrested after he shouted questions about mass surveillance at former NSA capo James Clapper during a Senate hearing:

“In March 2013, you misled the Senate Intelligence Committee about the scope of NSA surveillance. What do you have to say to communities of color that are so hyper-policed that we’re subjected to extrajudicial assassination for selling loose cigarettes, when you can get away with perjury before the Senate?”

The officer standing in front of Buttar informs him this is his only warning. “If you continue, you will be placed under arrest.”

Buttar continues to ask his questions and, no more than ten seconds later, he is arrested. Two Capitol police officers place him in handcuffs and arrest him.

However, Buttar does not stop posing his questions. Senators and staff in attendance exit the room while Buttar says loudly:

Why is your agency above the law, sir?…Why can you lie to the Senate about mass surveillance presuming the entire globe to be subject to pervasive collection, twisting the meaning of the terms in violations of the statutes in the Constitution restraining your agency?

Why are you above the law for perjury and why is the NSA above the law for mass surveillance, even violating the contours that the authors of the Patriot Act intended to authorize in 2001?…[A]nd Senators, why won’t you do your job? You’re charged with oversight of these officials.

http://boingboing.net/2015/02/27/mass-surveillance-hip-hop-from.html/feed0The science of vaccine denialhttp://boingboing.net/2015/02/24/the-science-of-vaccine-denial.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/02/24/the-science-of-vaccine-denial.html#commentsWed, 25 Feb 2015 06:00:12 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=367031
The only real scientific mystery about vaccines is why so many people buy into the deadly pseudoscience of vaccine denial and put their kids -- and yours -- at risk of catching ancient, vanquished, deadly diseases.]]>

The only real scientific mystery about vaccines is why so many people buy into the deadly pseudoscience of vaccine denial and put their kids -- and yours -- at risk of catching ancient, vanquished, deadly diseases.

In this video, Hank Green explores the cognitive science of vaccine denial -- how and why denialism takes hold.

In psychology, the search for these explanations is called "Explanatory Attribution" and different people have different "explanatory styles". Some people are more prone to blame themselves, while others search for an external event to blame. But one thing is clear: we are very bad at not blaming anything. It's not surprising that parents of children with autism, especially parents who notice a sudden loss of previous development, will search for a possible cause. And when the most significant recent event in the health of the child was a vaccination, as can be said for many moments in the life of a young American, we might identify that as a potential cause and deem that link worthy of further examination.

Now this, is completely logical. The problem is that over a dozen peer-reviewed papers have found no correlation between autism and the MMR vaccine, or any other vaccine for that matter. And yet, when you Google vaccines and autism, a fair number of the results claim that there is a link between the two, and that that link is being covered up either by the government or by big corporations. A parent, already experiencing frustration with the medical community's inability to tell them why this thing has happened to their child, will, on the internet, find a vibrant community of similarly frustrated people who share their values and experiences. These communities are full of anecdotes that draw connections between vaccines and autism. And so, unsurprisingly, some people become convinced that they have found the reason for their child's disability.

Once their mind has been made up, confirmation bias sets in. Confirmation bias is simply our tendency to more readily, and with less scrutiny, accept information, anecdotes, and world views that confirm our existing beliefs. And, again, it is a completely normal thing that every person does. Indeed, trying to convince someone that a previously held belief is incorrect has been proven to actually increase their affinity for that idea. And so a community is born, and the safety of vaccines is called into question. And once the procedure for getting a vaccine goes from the doctor telling you that it is now time for a vaccine -- and 99% of parents agreeing because that person went through medical school -- to it being a question to ponder, vaccination rates will go down.

I have a very small personal connection to the film: my novel Homeland has a cameo in the movie, as Snowden packs his overnight bag for his flight from Hong Kong.

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Citizenfour, Laura Poitras's brilliant documentary about Edward Snowden, won the Best Documentary Academy Award last night!

I have a very small personal connection to the film: my novel Homeland has a cameo in the movie, as Snowden packs his overnight bag for his flight from Hong Kong. I was immensely proud of this, of course!

“When Laura Poitras asked me if she could film our encounters, I was extremely reluctant. I’m grateful that I allowed her to persuade me. The result is a brave and brilliant film that deserves the honor and recognition it has received. My hope is that this award will encourage more people to see the film and be inspired by its message that ordinary citizens, working together, can change the world.”

http://boingboing.net/2015/02/23/citizenfour-takes-oscar-for-be.html/feed0Livestream: students occupy Newark school superintendent's office to protest forced privatizationhttp://boingboing.net/2015/02/19/livestream-students-occupy-ne.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/02/19/livestream-students-occupy-ne.html#commentsThu, 19 Feb 2015 16:53:50 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=365929
Greg Costikyan writes, "Newark public school students have occupied the office of Cami Anderson, the state-appointed superintendent of Newark's public school system, in protest against plans to privatize the entire city school system over the protest of the city's mayor and virtually its entire population."

They have been there since yesterday and plan to stay there until their demands are met.

They have been there since yesterday and plan to stay there until their demands are met. They are calling for Anderson's resignation (her contract ends March 1st).

Newark schools have been under direct state control for about 20 years. Anderson was appointed by New Governor Chris Christie and apparently needs to answer only to him. The city has a school board but their role is entirely 'advisory.' Anderson stopped attending meetings of this body about a year ago and has gained the reputation of being entirely inaccessible to the community. She was recently summoned to meet with New Jersey Legislators but was unresponsive to several lines of questioning.

Newark educators, parents, students, clergymen and other local leaders are increasingly frustrated and furious with the state of Newark school governance. Recently elected Mayor Ras Baraka campaigned on stopping Anderson's unpopular One Newark plan, which proposed closing neighborhood schools and replacing them with corporate charters, while centralizing 'school choice' by eliminating zoning and having all families apply to the city for assignment to any school. Other community complaints point to crony deals in connection with charter approval and real estate and mismanagement of Mark Zuckerberg's donation of $100,000,000 to Newark's schools.

The students attended a school board meeting yesterday evening in hopes of addressing Anderson, who was characteristically not in attendance. They then went to her office in the same building and announced that would wait there until they got to speak with her (or until she resigned.)

http://boingboing.net/2015/02/19/livestream-students-occupy-ne.html/feed0MC Frontalot dresses up as Grandma, Little Red Riding Hood and the wolfhttp://boingboing.net/2015/02/12/mc-frontalot-dresses-up-as-gra.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/02/12/mc-frontalot-dresses-up-as-gra.html#commentsThu, 12 Feb 2015 17:00:46 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=364099released the video for "Start Over" -- the Little Red Riding Hood song from his album Question Bedtime.]]>

MC Frontalot has released the video for "Start Over" -- the Little Red Riding Hood song from his album Question Bedtime. He writes, "I finally got the new video out! And I'm extremely happy with it. Director Alicia J. Rose did a bang-up job putting this project together when I came through Portland in December, marshaling the city's youngsters and more makeup than I've ever worn for anything."
]]>http://boingboing.net/2015/02/12/mc-frontalot-dresses-up-as-gra.html/feed0Crowdfunding Toronto restaurant expansion for Fonda Lolahttp://boingboing.net/2015/02/11/crowdfunding-toronto-restauran.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/02/11/crowdfunding-toronto-restauran.html#commentsWed, 11 Feb 2015 17:05:17 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=363814
Our own sysadmin Ken Snider writes, "Toronto Mexican Restaurant Fonda Lola, in an attempt to both raise capital for bulk purchases (to lower costs) as well as create a War Chest to open a second location, has decided to issue 1000 public shares at $75 each, via Indiegogo."

These shares will be redeemable in the first year for $75 in restaurant credit.

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Our own sysadmin Ken Snider writes, "Toronto Mexican Restaurant Fonda Lola, in an attempt to both raise capital for bulk purchases (to lower costs) as well as create a War Chest to open a second location, has decided to issue 1000 public shares at $75 each, via Indiegogo."

These shares will be redeemable in the first year for $75 in restaurant credit. In addition, shareholders will get several perks, including priority seating, discounts, and more, depending on the number of shares purchased.

After the first year, the shares will be tradable or redeemable at market value.

Toronto is not generally assumed to be especially flush with good, authentic Mexican cuisine. Andres Marquez and Ernesto Rodriguez, owners of Fonda Lola, are hoping to take their menu of Authentic dishes and "lighter, locally sourced" food mainstream, and change that perception.

http://boingboing.net/2015/01/28/rowlf-the-dog-covers-biz-marki.html/feed0Scientific American and fansubbers help video spread in Hungaryhttp://boingboing.net/2015/01/27/scientific-american-and-fansub.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/01/27/scientific-american-and-fansub.html#commentsTue, 27 Jan 2015 14:00:05 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=360625
Dean from Amara writes, "Editors at Scientific American noticed they were getting a TON of hits on the video What Happens to Your Body after You Die?]]>

Dean from Amara writes, "Editors at Scientific American noticed they were getting a TON of hits on the video What Happens to Your Body after You Die? To their surprise, the majority of the views were originating in Hungary."

Most Hungarians don’t speak English (fun fact: Latin was the nation’s official language into the mid-19th century. So, dice quod ad tuum Latin magister.) How were they enjoying our video? In their native language, via our crowd-sourced translation community on Amara! Köszönöm (thank you) to our Hungarian translators on Amara (especially to Sándor Nagy), and to all 1,064 of our translators on Amara who have translated 81 videos into 71 languages.

Digging deeper on Amara, we saw that “What Happens to Your Body After You Die?” and “Why Does Bonking Beer Bottles Create Foam?” are the most translated videos of all our posted videos there—with 27 languages for both.

After that, it’s 13 languages for “Why Hasn’t the Universe Collapsed into a Giant Black Hole?” and 11 languages for “How Do We Determine the Edge of the Universe?”

(Disclosure: I am a volunteer advisor to the nonprofit that produces Amara)
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http://boingboing.net/2015/01/27/scientific-american-and-fansub.html/feed0HOAX: TV show tricks chronic catcallers into harassing their own mothershttp://boingboing.net/2015/01/26/tv-show-tricks-chronic-catcall.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/01/26/tv-show-tricks-chronic-catcall.html#commentsMon, 26 Jan 2015 17:00:44 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=360197Update: These are staged -- it's an ad for Everlast, and not a TV show as I had believed.
The Peruvian TV show "Harassing Your Mother" performs secret makeovers on the mothers of habitual catcallers, then uses hidden cameras to record catcallers shouting sexual remarks at their own mothers, who furiously upbraid them in the middle of the busy streets of Lima.

Update: These are staged -- it's an ad for Everlast, and not a TV show as I had believed.
The Peruvian TV show "Harassing Your Mother" performs secret makeovers on the mothers of habitual catcallers, then uses hidden cameras to record catcallers shouting sexual remarks at their own mothers, who furiously upbraid them in the middle of the busy streets of Lima.

http://boingboing.net/2015/01/26/tv-show-tricks-chronic-catcall.html/feed0WATCH: Trailer for Haphead, crowdfunded indie cyberpunk series about pro gamershttp://boingboing.net/2015/01/20/watch-trailer-for-haphead-cr.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/01/20/watch-trailer-for-haphead-cr.html#commentsTue, 20 Jan 2015 08:28:06 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=359144
In one week, Toronto's Postopian Pictures -- the people who brought us Ghosts With Shit Jobs and many other delights -- will premiere their crowdfunded cyberpunk series Haphead (previously):

Haphead is the story of a girl who’s literally empowered by videogames.

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In one week, Toronto's Postopian Pictures -- the people who brought us Ghosts With Shit Jobs and many other delights -- will premiere their crowdfunded cyberpunk series Haphead (previously):

Haphead is the story of a girl who’s literally empowered by videogames.

Ten years from now, a new haptic peripheral makes videogames so immersive that people learn skills just by playing. Maxine makes less than minimum wage at the factory where they make them, so she decides to become an unofficial beta tester by stealing one for herself. At home, her favorite rabbit-ninja game gets a whole lot more punishing, with the haptic feedback loop beating lethal skills into her muscle memory. Which is good: she needs to level up quick once her employer discovers her on-the-job theft.

Luckily, she’s not alone. There are other hapheads out there, with a variety of game-trained abilities. But while some of them are kindreds, one of them brings death….

http://boingboing.net/2015/01/20/watch-trailer-for-haphead-cr.html/feed0Electroswing Ella Fitzgerald's "Air Mail Special"http://boingboing.net/2015/01/19/electroswing-ella-fitzgerald.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/01/19/electroswing-ella-fitzgerald.html#commentsMon, 19 Jan 2015 14:00:57 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=358853
The Club Des Belugas Remix of Ella Fitzgerald's classic Air Mail Special turns one of the greatest scat tunes of all time into an amazing electro-swing song, with an unexpectedly fitting rhumba beat.

Never have empty carbs been more elegant -- and that's a catchy jingle! (via JWZ)
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http://boingboing.net/2015/01/15/the-acrobatic-japanese-maidpa.html/feed03D printed blooming Fibonacci zoetropeshttp://boingboing.net/2015/01/14/3d-printed-blooming-fibonacci.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/01/14/3d-printed-blooming-fibonacci.html#commentsThu, 15 Jan 2015 05:05:17 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=358320John Edmark, as part of his artistic residency at Autodesk, created these 3D printed "blooming" Fibonacci-sequence zoetropes, which seem to grow, writhe, and pulse as they're spun before a camera shooting every 1/4000 of a second.]]>

Stanford design prof John Edmark, as part of his artistic residency at Autodesk, created these 3D printed "blooming" Fibonacci-sequence zoetropes, which seem to grow, writhe, and pulse as they're spun before a camera shooting every 1/4000 of a second.

Edmark's created an Instructable detailing his process, if you want to try your hand at it!

The placement of the appendages on these sculptures is critical to the success of the animation effect. The positions are based on a specific phyllotaxy (i.e. leaf order) used by nature in a number of botanical forms, including pinecones, pineapples, sunflowers, artichokes, palm trees, and many succulents.

The photo above shows just such a succulent. I have numbered the leaves from youngest to oldest. If you follow the numbers in sequence you will find that each leaf is approximately 137.5º around the core from the previous leaf. 137.5º is a very special angle, called the golden angle, based on the golden ratio. When that angle is used by nature as a growth strategy it leads to the formation of spiral patterns. If you were to count the number of spirals in these patterns you will find that they are always Fibonacci numbers (e.g. check out the spirals on these pinecones).

In designing the sculptures, I used essentially the same method employed by nature. I placed the appendages one-at-a-time starting from the top-center, positioning each appendage 137.5º around the center from the previous appendage and also a little further out and/or down.

So when I animate these sculptures by spinning them with a strobe light (or video camera) I am, in a sense, recreating the process that I used to make them in the first place. Below are two stop-motion animations of some of my earlier work with Fibonacci spirals. You may these helpful in gaining a better intuition about how this animation technique operates.

http://boingboing.net/2015/01/14/3d-printed-blooming-fibonacci.html/feed0Truck full of fireworks explodeshttp://boingboing.net/2015/01/10/truck-full-of-fireworks-explod.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/01/10/truck-full-of-fireworks-explod.html#commentsSat, 10 Jan 2015 14:00:16 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=357517
The last time I saw a fireworks display with this tempo, it was courtesy of the Flaming Lotus Girls.
[video link]
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http://boingboing.net/2015/01/10/truck-full-of-fireworks-explod.html/feed0Southwest flight attendant's hilarious, freestyle safety announcementhttp://boingboing.net/2015/01/06/southwest-flight-attendants.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/01/06/southwest-flight-attendants.html#commentsTue, 06 Jan 2015 17:00:13 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=356657
Give that FA a raise! Put her in charge of the airline! Make her chairwoman of the FAA!

"Its protagonist lives in a world of almost continual night, with the hungry eyes and dead affect of an Ayn Rand wet dream: his world is constituted of chrome, glass, a palette of white-to-taupe, a spatter-pattern rug and one book, a single book, on graphic design" - Piercepenniless on the Redrow London property development promo video.

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"Its protagonist lives in a world of almost continual night, with the hungry eyes and dead affect of an Ayn Rand wet dream: his world is constituted of chrome, glass, a palette of white-to-taupe, a spatter-pattern rug and one book, a single book, on graphic design" - Piercepenniless on the Redrow London property development promo video.

Flat-toned, void affect, social cancer in a suit: a model for London living. Here’s a curious honesty about it all: houses in the suburbs are marketed still for the smiling happy family, all oak tables and smiling coffee mornings (in zone 4, the dog never even barks, let alone bites). In the central zones, having been cleared of many of their inconveniences (families, communities, *life*), now deadboxes are marketed to the single (wannabe singular) sub-Thatcherite dweeb who manages his violence only on a balance sheet, who wants to take life, pin it, and crush it behind plate glass. Let us burn it down.

http://boingboing.net/2015/01/02/the-only-end-of-year-video-i-e.html/feed0Citizenfour: all it's cracked up to be and morehttp://boingboing.net/2015/01/01/citizenfour-all-its-cracked.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/01/01/citizenfour-all-its-cracked.html#commentsThu, 01 Jan 2015 12:15:51 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=355975
I've been travelling continuously since September, and that means that despite my best efforts, I haven't been able to see Citizenfour, Laura Poitras's storied Edward Snowden documentary -- until last night.]]>

I've been travelling continuously since September, and that means that despite my best efforts, I haven't been able to see Citizenfour, Laura Poitras's storied Edward Snowden documentary -- until last night.

2014 was my busiest year ever. I've had so few nights at home, and even fewer with my wife, and even fewer when one or both of us weren't jet-lagged to the point of uselessness. Last night, New Year's Eve, we finally got a night out together with both of us rested and carefree, and after an excellent dinner and some drinks, we walked past a theater that was playing Citizenfour and decided on impulse that we'd both love to spend this rare evening together watching a great movie.

Boy, did we make the right decision! Of course, I'm very familiar with the Snowden story -- I've been reporting it, and I know many of the principles in the story well. But even though I knew the story backwards and forwards, and even though I've (jealously!) read tons of reviews of Citizenfour, I still found myself riveted by the movie.

Poitras's documentary is a perfect balance of narrative, human story, technical detail, politics, and ideology. Her incredible access to the entire story from the very beginning -- she was the first journalist whom Snowden successfully contacted -- along with her prodigious filmmaking skill, means that the story of surveillance, leaks, authoritarianism, Snowden-the-man, Snowden-the-phenomenon, and the second coming of privacy oriented crypto tools is told with all the taut virtuosity of a summer blockbuster -- but this one is real.

Most interesting to me was the portrait that emerges of Snowden himself. He's so wary of being turned into a symbol, of the media's propensity to make stories about politics and surveillance into stories about personalities. At the same time, you could hardly ask for a more articulate spokesperson for the cause of disclosure of the mass spying programs, and for allowing people to live their lives without the prying eyes of the state everywhere. Before he defected to the public, Snowden had a reputation for constantly challenging his co-workers and superiors about the ethics of their work, and in the movie, you can hear the echoes of those arguments -- and of the arguments he must have had with himself all along -- in his articulate, plain-spoken description of the reasons for his actions.

I walked out of that movie practically pogoing with delight and renewed sense of purpose. Poitras and Snowden's story could be a counsel of despair, the cheap cynicism of savvying, but it's not. It's a call to arms, a call for debate, a call for the state to serve its public, not rule it. It was one of my best New Year's Eves ever.

http://boingboing.net/2015/01/01/citizenfour-all-its-cracked.html/feed0Livestreams from the Chaos Communications Congresshttp://boingboing.net/2014/12/28/livestreams-from-the-chaos-com.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/12/28/livestreams-from-the-chaos-com.html#commentsSun, 28 Dec 2014 11:23:43 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=355375
The 31st Chaos Communications Congress is underway in Hamburg, where some of the most important, entertaining, mind-blowing, and earth-shaking information about computer security and politics will be revealed. Here's the livestream. (via Hacker News)
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The 31st Chaos Communications Congress is underway in Hamburg, where some of the most important, entertaining, mind-blowing, and earth-shaking information about computer security and politics will be revealed. Here's the livestream. (via Hacker News)
]]>http://boingboing.net/2014/12/28/livestreams-from-the-chaos-com.html/feed0Sony pirated K-pop anthem in The Interviewhttp://boingboing.net/2014/12/27/sony-pirated-k-pop-anthem-in-t.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/12/27/sony-pirated-k-pop-anthem-in-t.html#commentsSat, 27 Dec 2014 10:38:56 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=355368
Yoon Mi Rae is set to sue Sony over the inclusion of her song "Touch Love" in The Interview, which, she says, Sony failed to license for the film.]]>

Yoon Mi Rae is set to sue Sony over the inclusion of her song "Touch Love" in The Interview, which, she says, Sony failed to license for the film.

Touch Love was #1 on the Korean charts last September. Yoon Mi Rae says that Sony approached her for a license to the song, but when they failed to return her phone calls and she assumed they'd abandoned the idea.

“There were initial discussions for using ‘Pay Day‘ in the movie, but at some point, the discussions ceased and we assumed that it would not follow through,” Feel Ghood Music says.

“However, after the movie was released, we learned that the track had been used without permission, legal procedure, or contracts.”

Sony, who are already facing a world of pain following the hacking and near destruction of their IT systems in recent weeks, will now face a copyright infringement lawsuit over the unauthorized use of the ironically named ‘Pay Day’.

“We will be taking legal action against Sony Pictures as well as DFSB, the agency that had been carrying out the discussion regarding the use of the track,” the label says.

By cutting away from the video mid-chant, FOX's segment paints protestors as explicitly calling for the murder of police.

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Baltimore's WBFF -- a Fox affiliate -- edited protests of an anti-police-violence protest to make it sound like the protesters were chanting "kill a cop."

By cutting away from the video mid-chant, FOX's segment paints protestors as explicitly calling for the murder of police. They've depicted a non-violent protest about accountability for police brutality as a bloodthirsty mob.

What's significant about this act – other than the fact that it is intended for and will be gobbled up by psychotic paranoid racist conservative white people as evidence of the inherent criminality of black people – is that the woman leading the chant is Tawanda Jones, the sister of Tyrone West, who was murdered by Baltimore City Police on July 18, 2013. The West family's quest for justice for this crime has been overwhelmingly ignored by the city of Baltimore – after 73 weeks' worth of "West Wednesday" actions, the family has still not even been given Tyrone's full autopsy report.

Archivist Rick Prelinger sez, "I'm sure Beany's Hamburgers weren't the healthiest food, but this eight-minute home movie from Prelinger Archives takes us inside a fast-food joint from the Korean War era.

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Archivist Rick Prelinger sez, "I'm sure Beany's Hamburgers weren't the healthiest food, but this eight-minute home movie from Prelinger Archives takes us inside a fast-food joint from the Korean War era. Filmed in Long Beach, California right across from the Circle Drive-In, this film shows cooks, customers and classic cars in loving detail."

Home movies are richly detailed, often enigmatic records of everyday life, culture, landscape and industry. We're scanning our collection in collaboration with the nonprofit Internet Archive -- watch it grow!

http://boingboing.net/2014/12/21/kodachrome-home-movie-of-a-lon.html/feed0Usbdriveby: horrifying proof-of-concept USB attackhttp://boingboing.net/2014/12/19/usbdriveby-horrifying-proof-o.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/12/19/usbdriveby-horrifying-proof-o.html#commentsFri, 19 Dec 2014 20:00:13 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=354415
Samy Kamkar has a proof-of-concept attack through which he plugs a small USB stick into an unlocked Mac OS X machine and then quickly and thoroughly compromises the machine, giving him total, stealthy control over the system in seconds, even reprogramming the built-in firewall to blind it to its actions.]]>

Samy Kamkar has a proof-of-concept attack through which he plugs a small USB stick into an unlocked Mac OS X machine and then quickly and thoroughly compromises the machine, giving him total, stealthy control over the system in seconds, even reprogramming the built-in firewall to blind it to its actions.

Unlike most hacks, this one is visually pretty spectacular, since the attack emulates a keyboard and mouse, making windows appear and disappear at speed, while phantom words appear in the terminal and a phantom hand clicks the mouse on interface items deep in the OS.

Specifically, when you normally plug in a mouse or keyboard into a machine, no authorization is required to begin using them. The devices can simply begin typing and clicking. We exploit this fact by sending arbitrary keystrokes meant to launch specific applications (via Spotlight/Alfred/Quicksilver), permanently evade a local firewall (Little Snitch), install a reverse shell in crontab, and even modify DNS settings without any additional permissions.

While this example is on OS X, it is easily extendable to Windows and *nix.

We even evade OS X's security - while they attempt to prevent network changes being done by just a "keyboard", and even prevent most applications from changing position (special authorized accessibility features must be enabled which we don't have permission to), we evade both of these with some unprotected applescript and carefully planned mouse movements. While a device like Rubber Ducky is similar, it's unable to mount the same attacks as it lacks HID Mouse emulation.